So if something makes no physical difference to my current brain-state, and makes no difference to any of my past or future brain-states, then I think it’s just crazy talk to think that this metaphysical bonus thingie-outside-my-brain is the crucial thing that determines whether I exist, or whether I’m alive or dead, etc.
There is one important aspect where it does make a difference. A difference in social reality. The brain states progress in a physically determined way. There is no way they could have progressed differently. When a “decision is made” by the brain, then that is fully the result of the inner state and the environment. It could only have happened differently if the contents of the brain had been different—which they were not. They may have been expected to be different by other people (‘s brains), but that is in their map, not in reality. But our society is constructed based on the assumption that things could have been different, that actions are people’s ‘faults’. That is an abstraction that has shown to be useful. Societies that have people who act as if they are agents with free will maybe coordinate better—because it allows feedback mechanisms on their behaviors.
folk notions of personal identity are largely informed by the mental faculties affecting social relationships, with a particularly keen focus on moral traits.
There is one important aspect where it does make a difference. A difference in social reality. The brain states progress in a physically determined way. There is no way they could have progressed differently. When a “decision is made” by the brain, then that is fully the result of the inner state and the environment. It could only have happened differently if the contents of the brain had been different—which they were not. They may have been expected to be different by other people (‘s brains), but that is in their map, not in reality. But our society is constructed based on the assumption that things could have been different, that actions are people’s ‘faults’. That is an abstraction that has shown to be useful. Societies that have people who act as if they are agents with free will maybe coordinate better—because it allows feedback mechanisms on their behaviors.
Guys, social reality is one if not the cause of the self:
Robin Hanson:
PubMed: The essential moral self
This is a very interesting paper, thanks.